Alan Ely recalls his grandfather's role in the Beaverton community, though he never knew him, from stories told by his grandmother and parents. Saturday night parties at his family cottage, known as White Gate and built by his grandfather and grandmother, were well known and filled with music courtesy of his grandmother on piano and his father and uncles singing along. Alan also mentions that visitors to the parties were a mixture of local Beaverton residents as well as seasonal residents from Toronto and elsewhere. The White Gate cottage still exists but was sold out of the family in the mid-1950s. Alan's father eventually purchased a vacant lot and built a new cottage named Swallowbank.
